Monday, January 19, 2015

I’m taking this opportunity to plug a book that I love and
have loved for a long time and recommend all the time because a revamped
edition came out recently.
Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s a book that gets picked up all that
much by student-teachers.

God Went to Beauty School by Cynthia Rylant was originally
published in 2003 and has just a major overhaul. It’s been reissued as God Got a Dog now published with
beautiful illustrations by Marla Frazee.
This edition doesn't include all the poems found in the first book, reordering those remaining and with a few pronouns tweaked here and there.
Overall, I liked the changes but deep down had hoped that this was going to be
a new collection with continuing adventures for God.

This book tells what it would be like if God came to Earth
and lived as real men, women or children of various races. Each of these perspectives is reflected
throughout the book to emphasize that God is to be found everywhere and in all
of us whether as a lonely woman eating a spaghetti dinner, discovering
cable TV for the first time, a teenage boy suffering with a cold or a black man
named Jim, who loves to paint nails.

It’s an irreverent often humorous look at the ‘culture
shock’ of being human, but also celebrates the many wonders of the world or
reflects on the simple moments that compose ordinary lives.

Not being overly religious, I appreciate the breezy, cheeky
tone of the book, but I know there will be those out there who will reject it
for just that reason. This God lives among people by living as
one of us. The illustrations are not
overly elaborate and compliment the text beautifully with just a touch of lyricism.

Because it’s about God I wonder how teachers would or could
use this book as it potentially could be contentious with parents, community,
or school boards. Great for a poetry
unit but I worry that it doesn't make it into classrooms all that often.

And He was such a baby. He NEVER caught colds. He loved to brag about it. And now here He was snot nosed. It's hard to be authoritative with a cold. It's hard to thunder 'THOU SHALT NOT!' when it comes out 'THOU SHALT DOT!' Nobody takes him seriously.

From: God made
spaghetti –

And She didn't have a ceiling so
She tried to make it stick to Jupiter but that just vaporized the noodle, so
God decided to HAVE FAITH it was cooked al dente.

Search This Blog

About Me

I am the reference coordinator at The Doucette Library of Teaching Resources, a curriculum library in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary.
I love connecting education students and teachers with engaging and exciting resources for classroom teaching. I believe that resources that get me excited (or those that get you excited) are the ones with the best potential to get kids interested in learning about - well, everything. Finding those books that connect to the real world are the ones I enjoy promoting the most.